Wipes dispensers are now in widespread use to provide individual wipes for various applications. Wipes dispensers typically include a container holding a plurality of wipes that are individually dispensed through an aperture in the container. The containers may be rigid plastic containers or flexible containers, for example, those made out of foil materials. The plurality of wipes may be provided on a roll, with individual wipes being defined between perforations in the roll. The plurality of wipes might also be provided as individual wipes interleaved together, much like a common box of tissues. The perforated roll and interleaved structures are provided so that pulling a lead wipe through a dispensing aperture in the container will cause another wipe to follow, and, once the lead wipe is removed and separated from the following wipe, the following wipe (hopefully) remains accessible at the exterior of the container, becoming the new lead wipe to thereafter be removed when desired. This is all very well known.
In order for the lead wipe to be separated from the following wipe, it is important that the following wipe be subjected to some type of resistance so that the lead wipe can be ripped off of the remainder at its perforations (in the case of a perforated roll of wipes) or disengage from being interleaved with the following wipe (in the case of an interleaved stack of wipes). Thus, a large number of different dispensing orifices exist in the prior art to provide resistance to the removal of wipes from a container. In some prior art embodiments, star-shaped or other specially-shaped apertures are provided so that, when a leading wipe is pulled through the aperture the special shape of the aperture serves to provide resistance to the following wipe, with the resistance intended to be sufficient for causing the separation of the lead wipe from the following wipe. In other embodiments, the aperture is provided as a slit in an elastomeric element, with the slit providing resistance to the pulling of the wipes out of the container.
These dispensing orifices of the prior art are provided to (a) separate individual wipes from a perforated web or interleaved stack of wipes, and (b) hold the lead wipe in such a manner that it is easily accessed for removal, when desired. That is, the dispensing orifice not only serves to separate a lead wipe from a following wipe but also to prevent the following wipe from falling back into the container, where the user would then have to take steps to access the interior of the container in order to access the wipe. However, it is well known that the dispensing orifices of the prior art often fail to separate a lead wipe from a following wipe, allowing what is herein termed a “roping” of the plurality of wipes. Roping occurs when separation is not achieved and multiple wipes are pulled from the container as a continuous string or rope. This is perhaps more common with a perforated roll of wipes but can occur with interleaved wipes as well. This leads to waste when only one wipe is desired, and is therefore not acceptable to the end user. When the dispensing orifice does successfully separate a lead wipe from a following wipe it serves what is termed herein an “anti-roping” function.
It is also well known that the dispensing orifices of the prior art often cause a lead wipe to separate from a following wipe too early, before the lead end of the following wipe has exited the interior of the container through the dispensing orifice. If this occurs, the following wipe remains inside the container, which must then be opened to access the wipes. The dispensing orifice thereby fails to serve what is termed herein an “anti-fallback” function.
Those familiar with the prior art will readily appreciate that the dispensing orifices do not always serve the anti-fallback and anti-roping functions. Indeed, it is quite common for the average user to pull more than one wipe from the interior of the container because the dispensing orifice has failed to separate a line of perforation or an interleaved connection. It is also common for the dispensing orifice to disconnect the wipes in such a way that the following wipe remains under the dispensing orifice and is not exposed at the exterior of the container, thus requiring the user to access the interior of the container to access the wipe. Quite simply, the dispensing orifices of the prior art fail to adequately and consistently perform both the anti-roping and anti-fallback features for which they are intended. The present invention seeks to provide a wipes dispenser having structures sufficient to consistently provide both anti-roping and anti-fallback functions.
Upon the initial purchase of a wipes dispenser containing a bulk supply of wipes, or, alternatively, in those instances when a wipe falls back into the interior of the wipes container, the user must access the bulk supply of wipes and feed the lead wipe through the dispensing orifice. Many dispensing orifices are formed in planar structures of generally rigid material, and, when the user inserts the lead wipe through the dispensing orifice by pressing the lead wipe up through the orifice with his or her finger, the planar structures in which the orifice is defined are deformed, and the finger is pinched upon retraction, as the rigid material returns to the planar structure. For example, the well known dispensing orifice structure in U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,156 presents a grip orifice defined by peripheral surfaces that spread under finger pressure and then move closer together as the finger is removed, thus pinching the finger. This is an annoyance to the end users, and the art would benefit from grip orifice structures that do not pinch a finger when a lead wipe is fed therethrough in a direction from the interior of the container to the exterior.
In a perforated roll of wipes, the wipes are fed to the dispensing orifice from the center of the roll. This is well known. As the string of wipes is fed from the center of the roll, the plurality of wipes tend to kink and twist and, at times, overlap and stick together, particularly when the wipes are wet. This twisting and bunching can result in multiple wipes bunching up directly under the dispensing orifice, and this can significantly increase the amount of force that must be applied to pull a lead wipe through the dispensing orifice. Additionally, when the wipes bunch up under the dispensing orifice it is more likely that the lead wipe will separate underneath the dispensing orifice and result in fallback of a following wipe. Thus, the art would benefit from structures serving to reduce or eliminate this tendency of the wipes to bunch up underneath the dispensing orifice.
When creating dispensing orifice structures, it is preferred that the structures be simple to manufacture. When somewhat rigid plastic materials are employed, it is preferred that the dispensing orifice structures be capable of being manufactured through simple open-and-close molds. Thus, in addition to addressing the issues raised above with respect to dispensing orifices, the art will benefit by providing dispensing orifices that solve one or more of the above problems and also can be made through molding in a simple open-and-close mold.